Virginia Senate hopeful Tim Kaine is blasting Senate Democrats for not planning a confirmation hearing for Marilyn Tavenner, President Barack Obama’s nominee to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a former top health official in his state.

“I’m not sure which is worse — that the Senate doesn’t feel the need to hold a confirmation hearing for the person in charge of the largest single line item in the federal budget or that it’s an open question whether someone as qualified as Marylin Tavenner could get confirmed in this political climate,” Kaine said in a statement on Tuesday.

“For six years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has operated without a confirmed administrator, leaving this vital department in a state of limbo and preventing the organization from making the long-term adjustments necessary to ensure its viability. That’s unacceptable,” he added.

When Kaine was governor of Virginia, Tavenner served as his secretary of health and human resources “because of her experience as a nurse, nursing supervisor, hospital CEO and health care executive, as well as her pragmatic, results-oriented approach to solving problems,” he said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said last week that he had no plans to hold a hearing on Tavenner because it was “virtually impossible” to imagine her getting 60 votes.

A Baucus aide stressed that he was referring to Republican obstructionism and not his personal views on her qualifications.

Republicans have not pushed back as hard on Tavenner as they did on her predecessor, Don Berwick. But holding a hearing on her post would more than reopen the contentious debate over implementation of the health care reform law — something Democrats appear loath to do in an election year.

The CMS post has been without a confirmed administrator since late 2006, when Mark McClellan left the position. It has been a hot-potato post for years, and at times, the administration has had an acting or interim Medicare head.